Job 18-19

Job 18-19New Living Translation (NLT)

Bildad’s Second Response to Job

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 “How long before you stop talking?Speak sense if you want us to answer!3 Do you think we are mere animals?Do you think we are stupid?4 You may tear out your hair in anger,but will that destroy the earth?Will it make the rocks tremble?

5 “Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.The sparks of their fire will not glow.6 The light in their tent will grow dark.The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.7 The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened.Their own schemes will be their downfall.8 The wicked walk into a net.They fall into a pit.9 A trap grabs them by the heel.A snare holds them tight.10 A noose lies hidden on the ground.A rope is stretched across their path.

11 “Terrors surround the wickedand trouble them at every step.12 Hunger depletes their strength,and calamity waits for them to stumble.13 Disease eats their skin;death devours their limbs.14 They are torn from the security of their homesand are brought down to the king of terrors.15 The homes of the wicked will burn down;burning sulfur rains on their houses.16 Their roots will dry up,and their branches will wither.17 All memory of their existence will fade from the earth;no one will remember their names.18 They will be thrust from light into darkness,driven from the world.19 They will have neither children nor grandchildren,nor any survivor in the place where they lived.20 People in the west are appalled at their fate;people in the east are horrified.21 They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person,the place of one who rejected God.’”

Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

19 Then Job spoke again:

2 “How long will you torture me?How long will you try to crush me with your words?3 You have already insulted me ten times.You should be ashamed of treating me so badly.4 Even if I have sinned,that is my concern, not yours.5 You think you’re better than I am,using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.6 But it is God who has wronged me,capturing me in his net.[a]

7 “I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me.I protest, but there is no justice.8 God has blocked my way so I cannot move.He has plunged my path into darkness.9 He has stripped me of my honorand removed the crown from my head.10 He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished.He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.11 His fury burns against me;he counts me as an enemy.12 His troops advance.They build up roads to attack me.They camp all around my tent.

13 “My relatives stay far away,and my friends have turned against me.14 My family is gone,and my close friends have forgotten me.15 My servants and maids consider me a stranger.I am like a foreigner to them.16 When I call my servant, he doesn’t come;I have to plead with him!17 My breath is repulsive to my wife.I am rejected by my own family.18 Even young children despise me.When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.19 My close friends detest me.Those I loved have turned against me.20 I have been reduced to skin and bonesand have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,for the hand of God has struck me.22 Must you also persecute me, like God does?Haven’t you chewed me up enough?

23 “Oh, that my words could be recorded.Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,24 carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead,engraved forever in the rock.

25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,and he will stand upon the earth at last.26 And after my body has decayed,yet in my body I will see God![b]27 I will see him for myself.Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.I am overwhelmed at the thought!

28 “How dare you go on persecuting me,saying, ‘It’s his own fault’?29 You should fear punishment yourselves,for your attitude deserves punishment.Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”

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